Eeek! This has been an especially busy past few weeks full of work and travel! So I am about 3 weeks late on this post. That makes writing this especially difficult because I am going to try to have Campbell’s stats accurately reflect what was true right when she turned 8 months (Oct. 6) but it is hard to remember because things are changing so quickly. So here goes!

Campbell’s stats:

• Poor Campbell had her first real cold this month, which led to some grumpy days–a big change from her normal disposition.

(I love this pic of Campbell with her second cousin, Gray. He was so happy and she was just so, so tired!!)

• Campbell has really been babbling a lot. She started with baba or aba but has since started saying mamamama. So I’m calling it, her first word is mama! (spoiler alert: she can say dada now too!)

• Campbell is such a little monkey. She just lunges forward for anything that looks fun to grab and doesn’t seem very cautious (at least compared to her big brother at this age).

• As a result of her strong motivation, Campbell is getting close to crawling. She hasn’t perfected the army craw yet (spoiler alert: she is now basically crawling as of 8 months, 3 weeks!) but she can kind of slither around and usually manages to get whatever she is after. If I leave her sitting down, she is pretty adept at lunging forward to transition onto her belly. She loves to kick one leg out to the side and then use that to pivot around in a circle. She can get up into a crawl position when she is on a soft surface.

• Campbell is in such a fun, social stage right now. She looooves interacting with Sam and Henry (especially Sam) and smiles at almost anyone. Although lately she has been perfecting a little coy, shy thing where she tucks her head into my chest if someone new talks to her. It is so sweet.

• This month Campbell and I went on our first airplane trip together for my cousin Joe’s wedding! She was a great little traveler, even though she caught a cold on the plane.

• One super exciting recent development is that Campbell is finally getting a little more hair. Technically, she has enough hair to clip a bow, but it still looks a little silly. Luckily, she has plenty of headbands to fill in the gap!

(This is one of our favorite Campbell faces. Love that little half smile. Ben says it reminds him of me, my mom, and my Grandma Katie)

• Campbell is now able to ride in the shopping cart without falling over. Well, I still have to buckle her in. But now if I ever have to go to the store with both kids, Campbell can ride up front and Sam can hang out in the main part of the cart. Pretty exciting for both of them.

We just love, love, love our sweet little Campbell girl to pieces!! I’ll be back in about a week with lots of updates.  This is such a busy time for development and it’s so much fun. And here are a couple more cute pics!

Yikes! This has been a bad month for blogging!! It has just been really crazy, but I think things are calming down a little and I hope to get a few blog posts lined up. Anyway, here is Campbell’s 7 month update!

Campbell’s Stats:

• We won’t go back to the doctor for a well visit until 9 months (!!) so I don’t know her height and weight but she seems very long and not super chubby. She looks like she is about ready to move from her bucket seat to the Britax!

• Sleeping: Campbell is finally solidly sleeping through the night. She has been sleeping through the night on and off since about 3 months but it seemed like she never went one full week without waking up one time in the middle of the night. But now we have gone about 4 weeks, so I am hoping we’re done (of course now that I put it in print, she’ll probably wake up tonight!).

• Schedule: Campbell nurses four times  a day (7:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 4:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.) and naps twice a day (10 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.). She goes to bed for the night at 8. She now eats three solid meals a day too!

• Sam and Campbell are sharing a room and now we are actually leaving Campbell in her room to sleep all night. (We had been moving her to the crib in the hallway at night so she didn’t wake Sam when she woke up). She still tends to wake up earlier than Sam, but he has gotten pretty good about going back to sleep after I come in and take her to our room to feed her.

• We think Campbell has a mild milk allergy. At 6 months I started giving her yogurt for lunch, like I did with Sam. Then I noticed that her afternoon nap was going really poorly (crying, waking early, etc.) even though she naps like a champ in the morning. I decided that maybe it was the yogurt so I cut that out one day and she slept beautifully in the afternoon. I haven’t given her any since and she hasn’t had any more troubles with naps. I had also tried giving her formula a couple of times and she got a little pukey, but I’d just assumed it was because it was new. I am not going to give her any dairy for the next couple months and then try again. I have heard babies often outgrow this. Luckily, it seems to be a pretty mild reaction and I haven’t noticed her having any issues when I eat milk. I was kind of hoping to start switching over to formula, but I guess I will be breastfeeding a little longer!

• Campbell is eating a lot these days. Her favorite foods are fruit and cereal. She is not a huge fan of my homemade cereals but loooooves that powdery stuff you mix with water! We’re going to start trying some finger foods soon–maybe Sam’s old (and current) favorite, tofu!

• Campbell sits up well now, though I still usually put a pillow or blanket behind her because if she gets really excited and starts bouncing up and down, she will often take a spill!

• Mobility: Not crawling yet, but she is definitely working at getting her big belly off the floor. She twists her legs all around trying to get closer to a toy. She can scoot herself backward, which of course is frustrating when she is trying to get a toy that is in front of her. And now that she can roll onto her belly and her back,  she can even roll to try to get a toy.

• Social: She is definitely a social little girl and just looooves interacting with people and animals (well, mainly just Henry!). She often starts laughing when Sam is laughing, which is pretty cute. And she likes to make her sniffy face to get people to look at her.

• She is generally very happy but gets upset a little more now. And it seems to be a more “hurt feelings” upset rather than just a baby cry. She’ll make a real pouty face first and then little tears start rolling down her cheeks. It is pretty cute (and sad).

• Campbell is our little talker! She loves to say “ahbababa” and will say it back to you whenever you say it. She also squeals really loudly (just like big brother did) especially if you get distracted while spooning food! I have a few videos so I will post soon!

This is such a fun age! She is such a happy little girl and so fun to be around! I can’t wait to see what she’ll do next. We love you Campbell!

Campbell is 6 months old!! I can’t believe we’re already to the halfway mark of her first year!! (Well, past the halfway mark– sorry I am a little late with this post.) Campbell is such a joy to have around. Everyone remarks on how easygoing she is and it is really true! We are all so happy to have her in our little family. We love you happy girl!

Stats:

• weight: 15 lbs, 11 oz (50th%–my dainty girl!)

• height: 27.25″ (90th%-future basketball star?)

• Campbell’s newest trick is rolling onto her tummy. She almost exclusively does it in her crib, which is a little scary since babies are supposed to sleep on their backs (to reduce SIDS). Technically she can turn herself back over but she isn’t very good at it– she always gets her arms in the way–and has been crying  a lot more at nap time. We have been doing tummy time around the clock in hopes that she will get better at going from tummy to back.

• Campbell is sitting up now, though she still flops over pretty easily.

• Naps: Campbell is down to two naps/day! She has one from 10-11:30 and one from 2:30-4:30.

• Bedtime: Her night routine has changed about a dozen times this month. The basics are the same: she eats at 7:30, goes to bed at 8, and wakes up between 7 and 8 the next morning. Because she was waking Sam up too early (he really needs to sleep until at least 8 to wake up happy), we started pulling Campbell out of Sam’s room and putting her in a travel crib in the hallway at around 11 when we went to bed. That meant doing a dream feed because moving her woke her up. But now I am able to move her without waking her up so we have dropped the dream feed (yay!). She has done great–sleeping for about 11-12 hours with no waking–most of the time. However, she hasn’t really learned to self soothe so if she is awoken too early, she isn’t able to put herself back to sleep. Hoping that happens soon, but she doesn’t suck her thumb or take a paci. We are trying to get her attached to a lovey!

• Campbell has a new really funny face. I call it her squishy face because she squishes her face up and breathes loudly through her nose. It is so cute. She often does it in an effort to get attention from us or strangers. (I have a lot of pics of this face because I love it so much!)

• Her other attention-getting move is shrieking at the top of her lungs. She is just like Sam at this age!

• Campbell has graduated from the bouncy chair to the Jumperoo! She loves jumping in that thing! She really likes the little toys and has recently discovered how to bounce in it.

• Our baby is a great little eater! We started solids shortly after her 5 month birthday. She took to the cereals right away and has gotten really into fruits and veggies too. She definitely has a preference for sweet foods (just like Daddy!). So far she’s had brown rice, oatmeal, and mixed cereals, sweet potatoes, apple sauce, bananas, avocados, green beans, plums, and baby mum mums (rice rusk crackers).

Oh, Campbell!! We love you so, so much!